1. MLST uses the sequence information within a set of housekeeping genes to determine the type of the organism. For each gene the dissimilar sequences are noted to be different alleles. MLSA is very similar to MLST but uses linked sequences to derive a phylogenetic relationship. MLSA is generally used to progress species descriptions whereas MLST is used with species that are already distinct. In this lab we are performing MLST.
2. The 16s rRNA gene is highly conserved and therefore does not rapidly accumulate mutations so with some organisms it does not allow species identification. Housekeeping genes however, have much more sequence variation and can be used to identify one genus from another. MLST and MLSA …show more content…
No. A. salmonicida subsp. salmonicida Ae46 and Ae31 arose from different species of salmonid fish (pg.10). A. veronii isolates showed a varied host range in warm-water species in different habitats such as freshwater, brackish water and marine water (pg 10).
6. There are at least 96 strains (pg. 7) with high diversity. 89 individual sequence types were identified (pg. 12).
7. There are 3 clonal families present, 2 are associated with disease.
8. Patient C is the index case with symptoms beginning on 10/6. It appears that the strain changed over time. Two alleles appear to have changed. ppsA was the first allele to change and was noted in 3 patients. Of the three patients with the ppsA change, one patient had an additional change in the recA allele.
9. A sequence type (ST) is defined by the specific alleles at number of specific housekeeping gene loci for a particular bacterial isolate. Clonal families are groups of strains that differ from another strain within the group by no more than one allele. Strains with the same ST do not differ between specific alleles. There are 3 distinct STs in the dataset, 17, 166 and 39. If you do not get an exact match it means that your allele numbers do not match with a previously determined